12 May 2023

The Ministry of Education provided new guidelines for Mental Health Education to schools last last year. This was in response to feeling schools needed to place more emphasis on teaching strategies to support mental health with greater consistency. Fortunate for us, we have been on this wavelength for the past 6-7 years at least with our practices embedded in the DNA of the school.

After completing my certification in Positive Psychology, I embarked on the 'learn it, live it, teach it' philosophy. It began with teaching the teachers - their learning. Before they teach, they learn! It's not magic. This then saw us feature as a case study school both in a NZ published book on Wellbeing and Resilience and also an interview and a mention in the Times International Educational Supplement. So, pretty cool stuff really! 

However, it still doesn't happen by magic - it takes deliberate acts from myself, for my staff so that they can then continue to learn and live it to teach and embed. (So, yes, I will embarrass myself dancing to Yazz in Assembly - I want to make everyone smile!)

I have to keep opening my material, I need to keep peppering our meetings with learning, my weekly emails to staff always have messaging to keep our practices alive.

Just like we analyse data in Reading, Writing and Maths, we also analyse a different type of data in terms of our children's wellbeing/mental health. I have a quote in my office, "The words you speak become the house you live in."  Changing the words can take time, but we know the power of language, what negative self-talk could mean when a child get's something 'wrong'. How can this be seen as part of learning and growth? How can we support perfectionism to practise greater optimalism - enjoying the learning along the way? How can we support children to build their self-belief, self-esteem and reframe events when required? 

Yes, big questions and, fortunately, they are backed with plenty of science-based, quality researched activities we teach in our classrooms.

So, when those Mental Health Education Guidelines arrived on my desk - I read them - I considered our Positive Education aka Wellbeing teaching and learning, and was pleased (and relieved) to be able to say we have this covered - and it's an ongoing mission. 

The quote on my wall is part of a bigger project - "Encouraging a Community to Flourish". It's a big task...... but it's been kept alive for the last 6 -7 years with more to come.

We will be having an Open Morning later this term. I'll be talking more about this whole area which is part of the school's magic ingredient. Did I say magic AGAIN?